D&D 5R: Water Movement & Combat

The 5E rules for aquatic encounters were smeared over a number of locations and generally left me with a lack of useful understanding.  The result was I avoided encounters in the water so I could avoid the puddle of rules that defined aquatic encounters.  

The 5R rules have made pretty big changes.  I'll dive into how it is defined to work in the newest iteration of the rules in this post.  As usual, I'll copy teh relevant rules snippets into this post, after I walk through what I think the rules mean to me and my games.

D&D 5R: Grappling What Are The Rules Anyway?

 Grappling, in my experience, has long been a mess as far as the rules go.  It's just been hard to remeber the rules and to use them at appropriate times.  Often it is easier to just swing a weapon at a target rather than use the sometimes amazing grappling technique.

In D&D 5E 2014 (known as 5E to me), there was an opposed challenge to start a grapple which repeated.  No big deal other than having to figure out what ability each particpant was using make a pair of rolls add mods and compare.  Well that's all changed in D&D 5R 2014 (known as 5R herein).

D&D 5R: Drawing & Stowing Weapons -- Dueling and Two Weapon Fighting Simultaneously?

In an earlier post, Four Attacks per Turn at Level 5. Yes! Really?, I looked at the hash that the 5R rules created with two weapon fighting.  This is a related, but much simpler topic: How does drawing and stowing weapons work and can a character benefit from dueling feat (use only one weapon) and Duel Wielder / Two-Weapon Fighting Style in the same round?

I'll gather the rules snippets that apply and link a relevant video but first, I'll get to the conclusion and an example. 

TLDR: Each attack can be accompanied by stowing -or- drawing a weapon (two with two weapon fighting feat) before -or- after the actual attack. It is possible (and bizarre) for a character to benefit from who has the Duel Wielder / Two-Weapon Fighting Style and the Dueling feat in the same combat round.

D&D 5R: Four Attacks per Turn at Level 5. Yes! Really?

 It appears that Wizards has managed to make a real hash out of two weapon fighting in the 2024 rules.  I'll link some relevant videos that discuss the issues, gather the rules snippets that apply and give my understanding of what they mean, especially (and likely only) to my table below. 

TLDR: It seems possible for a character who has the Dual Wielder Feat and is using light weapons to attack twice with what used to be referred to as an off-hand weapon. 

Alustriel’s Spells

Homebrewing 5R Versions

There used to be a number of spells included in D&D that are credited to Alustriel.  I’ve become interested in them as I am setting up to run an Edge of Ruin campaign.  I’ll be using these spells as “name drop” opportunities for the pre-game that one of our players is running for us (I get to play, yea!).

I found homebrew versions of each of the below spells on DnDBeyond.  All but the first can be traced to 2e sources.  I don’t know where the first came from. The spells and sources for the most recent official versions I could find are:

Spell Name	Lvl	School	Edition
Alustriel's Electric Strike	C	Evocation	Strictly home-brewed no canon source
Alustriel's Banner	1	Illusion	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Turtle Soup	1	Evocation	2e Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume Four
Alustriel's Fang	2	Alteration	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Mantle	4	Abjuration	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Improved Mantle	7	Evocation	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Sword of Stars	7	Evocation	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One.
Alustriel’s Queenmantle	9	Abjuration	2e Dragon Annual #1, Gem of the North, pp. 59-60

Feat: Mage Slayer

There is a nifty feat titled Mage Slayer which seems clearly intended to make melee characters effective at shutting down casters or at least noticeably better at that task.

By RAW the Mage Slayer when he/she is nose to nose (within 5 feet) of a caster can poke that caster as a reaction to a spell cast.  Disappointingly, the mage slayer must politely wait for the cast to complete before making his/her attack.  

That wait can be rather disappointing if the caster decided to polymorph the mage slayer into a slug, teleported away, or any of a myriad casts that disable the mage slayer's ability.  

I'd think the mage slayer wouldn't patiently wait for the spell to complete, he or she would smack the caster and hope to fizzle that spell before it completes.  This posting considers how to make that work in 5E (hint: a house rule).

Exhaustion and Fatigue

 

Exhaustion is described in the Player's Handbook in Appendix A.  I read it as being rather clear and understandable as well as punishingly debilitating.

The high level of punishment is my driver for this post.  Exhaustion is used in 5E as a penalty for extended forced marches, long term exposure to extreme conditions, chases of a minute or so duration and a few other things.

Recovering from exhaustion requires a long rest to heal one level, meaning that a character that has pushed forward for days and reached 5 stacks of exhaustion is going to need 5 days of rest to fully recover.  That is a lot, but it is an extreme level of exhaustion from great and extended effort.  A chase, run RAW, can result in that same level of exhaustion in 8 rounds, less than a minute of running.  This implies that a far number of people running a quarter mile sprint end up incapacitated for the better part of a week before they are back to normal and suggests that longer sprints are just impossible.   

Inspiration - A Non-Inspired Rule per RAW

D&D 5E didn't add many new elements; it largely streamlined and simplified mechanics that have been in one or more of the earlier versions.  Inspiration is one of the brand new items. It essential provides the DM an ability to give any/all player(s) a virtual cookie, a reward, in the form of advantage on a future roll of his/her choice.   

The idea seems really solid.  Give the DM something other than Gold, Magic, or XP with which to reward players.  Sadly, the actual rule works out to be a tad bit uninspiring. 

In this post, I will take a closer look at the rule, discuss a bit of info from the web and define how I want to try handling Inspiration in my next campaign. 

Chase Scenes

The assassin fires a crossbow bolt through the window, landing a bolt in the chest of her target.  He then leaps from the balcony and attempts to escape into the crowd hoping that his slight lead over the party will be enough to get away....What follows could be an interesting chase event or just a simple counting of distances with a predetermined result just playing out as difference in speeds.  I've DMed such an event rarely but never had I been happy with the way it worked.  

I ran across a post on oldschoolroleplaying.com that reviews the history of pursuit rules in D&D.  I think it makes an interesting read.  In this post, I will look at how chases are defined in RAW and consider a couple alternative rules.  

UA Class Features and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE)

Tasha Contemplating

 TCoE includes a large number of class specific options.  Each class has a number of OPTIONAL Class Features and then a handful of new subclasses.  

Tha Class Features are most, but by no means all of the features specified in the 2019, UNEARTHED ARCANA Class Feature Variants article. They will be the focus of this posting.

The subclasses are a combination of new and retreaded information. Many of them have previously been specified in various Unearthed Arcana articles.  Some are from campaign source books, such as Artificer from Eberron and Bladesinger from the Sword Coast. I've not looked in detail, but I presume that some tweaks have been made and that the TCoE version, as the newest is the default RAW definition. I'm not going to look further at the subclasses unless a game setting suggests one as useful or a player wants to play one.

Rests Revisited & Revised

Back in July 2020 I put together some thoughts on rest durations and effects in response to an interesting video I watched.  The author of that video suggested several changes, some of which resonated with me while others seemed like change for changes sake.  

In this post I am will spell out the experimental home rule, subject to refinement and further change, that I would like to implement in my next game to define four levels of rests:

1. Breather (10 minutes)
2. Short Rest (1 hour)
3. Long Rest (8 hours)
4. Full Rest (12+ hours in safety)

Character Creation and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE)

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the most recently published rule book contains a lot of additions of this and that.  A fair number of those additions are formalization of what has previously been UA or specific campaign material.  What I am looking at in this post is all new defined in a section titled Customizing Your Origin that basically (optionally) throws the entire D&D rule book out the window.  It allows assignment of stat bonuses to any stat, changing languages, even adding darkvision to any character all as OPTIONS.

This post will discuss the customizing origins rules in TCoE as I see them and outline what I will typically be allowing in my games. 

Rests: Breather, Short, Long, and Full

I've long been bothered by the high power of the Long Rest the relative weakness of Short Rests in my D&D 5E games.  It always seems that if a place for a short rest can be found, a place of a long rest is only slightly more elusive.  A group on an extended delve need only find that lovely niche to hide in for eight hours and they are miraculously fully healed and rejuvenated.

I'm not alone in this thinking, as I was just pointed at a video by a guy calling himself the dungeon coach.  First a link to his video and then my reactions to some elements.  Finally, what I think I would like to do in my games.

Leveling: Points vs Milestones, Part 1

I believe this is the first installment of a three part series on leveling.  The parts are expected to be:

1. Experience per RAW
2. Issues and Benefits
3. How I Want to Handle Leveling

The follow on posts may change, or never exist, but that is my thought as of today.

Cutting Words vs Attack Rolls

 The College of Lore Bard's ability Cutting Words allows a Bard to reduce an attack roll with one inspiration die roll.  That's a d6 to d12 reduction in an attack roll that can easily be the difference between a hit and a miss.  The rules on it are rather clear and it has been clairfied with a Sage Advice but it seems to lead to an undesirable in play result.

Counterspell and Knowing What is Cast

Counterspell is one of the potentially messiest spells in the game.  Enemy caster begins casting something, player wonders what that spell is (doesn't want to blow a 3+ level spell stopping a cantrip), player opts to counterspell, enemy decides to counterspell the counterspell, another player decides to counterspell the counterspell of the counter spell, then one or more heads explode around the table.

There are clear RAW answers to most of teh relevant questions.  I'm not much satisfied with them.  This post will summarize relevant RAW as I understand it and then offer the rule that I intend to use.

Encumbrance: Weight and Size

The rules in D&D 5E for encumbrance, weight, and size are very generalized.  I've seen the rule generalized as:  "It is absolutely 100% true that almost no character will ever, in their class' native gear, need to worry about carrying too much. And the heaviest armors have STR prereqs anyway, which makes basic gear even less of an issue." (Deliverator) That's a fundamental feature of the most basic encumbrance rule:

Carrying Capacity. Your carrying capacity is your Strength score multiplied by 15. This is the weight (in pounds) that you can carry, which is high enough that most characters don't usually have to worry about it.

Push, Drag, or Lift. You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity (or 30 times your Strength score). While pushing or dragging weight in excess of your carrying capacity, your speed drops to 5 feet.

Size and Strength. Larger creatures can bear more weight, whereas Tiny creatures can carry less. For each size category above Medium, double the creature's carrying capacity and the amount it can push, drag, or lift. For a Tiny creature, halve these weights.

D&D 5E Aerial Combat

Aerial combat is defined, sort of, in RAW.  The relevant rules are as badly fragment as the Aquatic rules and they are rarely used, so they are a bit of a challenge to smoothly get right during play.  I will attempt to produce an updated summary and add just a bit in this article.

Before getting into the nitty gritty, I want to give credit to Michael Long published a good summary of the Aerial Combat rules on his Tribality blog back on 2014. His article is an easy read, though it lacks XGE information.

Changeling

I have been playing a changeling bard in our Shadows of the Apocalypse campaign for some months now, and I have to say playing a character with a handful of personalities is fun. I do bump into some questions about the effects of changing and the detect-ability of it at times. I've also been interested in the rule changes that have been made that affect the class.

The race was added to 5E via Unearthed Arcane (UA) at least twice (Races of Eberron 7/2018 and Unearthed Arcana: Eberron 2/2015) and now in the official Eberron supplement.  Keith Baker, creator of Eberron, has written more about changelings outside the official Wizards publications, but given his relationship to the subject, his thoughts are nearly cannon and I will generally accept them as supplements to RAW.  In particular he has published FAQ: Changelings on his blog.

Notes on Arcane Lock and Tiny Hut

In recent sessions groups I have been playing with had questions on the details of two spells.  I want to share the resolutions we came up with for them in this post.

1. Arcane Lock
2. Tiny Hut